Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Three Addams Family crafts

Hello! Do you like the Addams Family? I really hope you said yes,
because today I've got three easy and quick crafts inspired by our
favourite creepy family to show you! I didn't watch heaps of TV or
movies growing up, but the Addams Family is one that definitely sticks
out in my mind; I wanted to be a cross between Morticia and Wednesday
when I grew up, and spent a good portion of my teenage years dressing
entirely in black to achieve such a look ~___^

This first project is one that I have been meaning to do for ages! I
don't know why I put it off for so long as it wasn't difficult to do and
I really love how it turned out ^___^ I prefer having black pillowcases
since otherwise they do tend to end up stained by my hair dye, but if
you wanted to make your own you could really use any colour. I do feel
like black is apropos though!

To make them, I ironed the pillowcases to get most of the wrinkles out
and wrote out "mon cher" and "cara mia" onto them with white chalk.

Then I used a paintbrush to go over the letters with white fabric paint.
I did about three layers of paint to try and get the lines a relatively
even weight; they're still not perfect but the extra layers also helped
the white letters pop more against the black fabric.

I left them to dry overnight and then gave them a quick iron, with a
cloth over the letters to protect my iron. Depending on what type of
fabric paint you use, you may not need to iron your project but it makes
me feel a bit more confident that it will survive the wash!

I think these would be perfect for a housewarming gift for a couple, or
maybe even a wedding present! Depends how kooky they are, I guess ~___^

Next up is the craft that inspired this whole post: a Morticia quote canvas. This is seriously the easiest craft ever!

I was feeling a bit uninspired one day so I was digging around in my
craft room and came out with a blank square canvas and some black
glittery letter stickers. I decided that there really isn't any other
colour best suited to black than more black, so I painted the canvas
with a mixture of black paint and glitter mod-podge. I slopped it on
nice and thick to give it some texture and then when it had dried, I
just glued on the letter stickers.

I know gluing stickers may seem a bit strange, but they're made for
attaching to paper and so weren't sticking as well as I wanted them to.
I've put this canvas in our lounge room, and when the sun hits it it
really does sparkle! Which is great because, after all, black *is* such a
happy colour! ^___^

My last project was going to be something different to this family motto
necklace, but I had a total craft fail and couldn't rescue it in time!
I'm sure it's still salvageable, but it's going to take a bit longer
than I had hoped.

So, instead, I got out the sculpey and whipped up this necklace. I used
the same technique as the derby name necklace I made for Electra Fire,
but made it bigger as the Addams' Family have got quite a long creed! In case you can't read it, the motto is "Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc" or, "We Gladly Feast on Those Who Would Subdue Us".

I made the pendant from black clay, stamped it with my tiny alphabet
stamps, added holes with a thick needle, and baked it for 20 minutes at
about 150oC. I wanted a tarnished metal look, so when the pendant was
done baking, I covered it with silver acrylic paint and, while it was
still damp, rubbed at it with a tissue to show some of the blackness
underneath.

I used a fine felt tip pen to add some black in the indentations of the
words and then I added the chain by threading jump rings through the
holes. And that's it! A pretty necklace, but not just pretty words ~___^

About Me

I'm a sociologist/ anthropologist/ almost librarian with a love for crafting, roller skating, and op shopping. If I'm not doing any of those things, I'm probably reading, gardening, or baking a cake. During many of those things, I'm also drinking tea - you can take a guess at which ones that works successfully with ~___^ See my About me page for more details, and if you want to contact me, email lisa.teaandcraft@gmail.com ^___^